Residential and commercial buildings conventionally have horizontal floors supported atop underlying, horizontal joists. The joists usually comprise elongate members fairly uniformly spaced apart and having their opposite ends supported on suitable upstanding structures such as foundation walls or the like. In the construction of the building it is customary to form the foundation and then install the joists and flooring materials. A plurality of braces usually interconnect the joists and such braces conventionally extend obliquely from the lower edge of one joist to the upper edge of an adjacent joist. Such braces serve to maintain the joists in their upright positions and minimize sagging of the joists and the overlying flooring to some extent.
Following the installation of the joists, the flooring, and the braces it is conventional to bore holes in at least some of the joists for the purpose of enabling utility components, such as wiring, water pipes, heating ducts, air passages, sewer lines, and the like to extend through such openings, thereby avoiding placing such utility components at a level below that of the lower edges of the joists. Over a period of time squeaks may develop due to uneven settling of parts of the building, sagging of some of the joists, and separation between some of the joists and the overlying flooring. The squeaks usually can be eliminated by reinforcing the flooring, and one of the best reinforcements comprises a beam which parallels the joists and spans a distance corresponding to the length of such joists. However, the installation of such a reinforcing truss between a pair of adjacent joists is extremely troublesome and time consuming if utility components of the kind referred to above span the distance between two adjacent joists where it is desired to install the reinforcing truss.
A principal object of the present invention is to provide a reinforcing truss which may be installed quickly and easily in the space between two adjacent joists and without interference with any utility components which may occupy such space.
An adjustable reinforcing truss constructed in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention comprises an elongate beam adapted to be interposed between a pair of spaced apart, parallel joists and mounted at its opposite ends on suitable, upstanding support members at such level that the beam underlies and bears against the lower surface of flooring supported atop the joists. Coupled to the beam is a plurality of V-shaped support members each of which comprises a pair of limbs joined at corresponding ends and diverging upwardly from one another to provide an open space between such limbs.
Each V-shaped support may be so positioned relative to the beam that any utility component which occupies the space between the two adjacent joists may be accommodated in the open space between the limbs of the support member or in the space between two adjacent supports. Once the support has been moved to a position in which the ends of the limbs are adjacent the beam, such ends may be coupled to the beam, thereby providing a unitary construction between the beam and the support members.
The joined ends of the limbs of each support are fixed so as to avoid rocking movement of one limb relative to the other. As a consequence, each support is rockable as a unit relative to the reinforcing beam so as to enable rocking movement of a support to transmit force to the flooring via the beam.
At the juncture of the joined ends of the limbs of each V-shaped support is an extension through which a threaded stabilizing rod extends. The stabilizing rod carries adjacent each extension a pair of correspondingly threaded adjusting nuts. The two adjusting nuts are operable in conjunction with one another to apply on the associated support via its extension forces to effect rocking movement of such support in a selected one of two opposite directions so as to exert vertical forces on the beam and, through the latter, to the flooring.
The construction and arrangement of the beam, the support members, the stabilizing rod, and the adjusting nuts are such as to enable adjustment of the individual supports relative to one another in such directions as to provide reinforcement of the flooring to overcome sagging and squeaking.